By Marty Sartini Garner on May 2, 2012

Fear Fun is Josh Tillman’s first record as a former Fleet Fox, and while the hallmarks of his old group punctuate some songs (“O I Long to Feel Your Arms Around Me”), the L.A. transplant is clearly in his own water. Though his vocal melodies sometimes plod into sing-songy melancholia, Tillman breathes into his arrangements, transforming the terse opening of “Nancy From Now On” into a neo-soul wonderland, and distinguishing himself as more than a back-row howler.